Mr. Hossein Mokhtar’s Testimony

He is one of the
survivors of the massacre of 1988 by the Islamic Regime of Iran.

Dear ladies and
Gentlemen

First of all, I
would like to take this opportunity to thank you for attending this
conference, I also would like to thank my friends for their efforts that
made it possible for me to be here.

Although it is sad
for me to talk about the most horrible nightmare of my life, I owe it to
all who lost their lives or are now suffering in prisons, to disclose
the real face of Mullahs’ regime of Iran.

Because of
the interest of time, I will restrict my talk to the massacre of 1988.I will first give you some basic information about myself.

All together, I
have spent more than 6 years of my life in the political prisons and
detentions of Iran’s Islamic regime, all of it in Evin prison in
Tehran.During that time, I suffered savage tortures by interrogators
of regime’s Intelligent Agency.Later,
I was able to leave Iran and was accepted as a political refugee by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, through their office in
Ankara/Turkey.

Between Jan 26,
2000, the date of my arrival to the United States, and last month, I
have had 24 surgeries to treat the injuries and broken parts of my body,
which were the results of tortures in Evin prison.I have become disabled with ongoing medical treatments, and have
also lost part of my hearing.

In 1981 when the
Islamic regime of Iran executed my father, Mr. Ali Mokhtar Zibaii, he
was only 40 years old, the same age that I am now.He was an officer of the Air Force in the First Fighters Base in
Mehrabad Tehran.At that
time I was almost 18 years old.

From 1981 the date
of my father’s execution until 1986, the regime was searching for me,
and in hiding I was unable to be with my family during that time.

In 1986 I was
arrested, and was kept in prison until 1991.During those years I suffered the most savage tortures such that
when they released me in 1991, the left side of my body was paralyzed.When I came out I was alien to my family because while I was
in prison, my family were rarely allowed to visit me.This was one of the common ways of torturing political
prisoners by the Islamic regime.

I am one of about
900 survivors of the massacres of almost 30,000 helpless political
prisoners, whom were executed by the Islamic regime. Most of these
victims were killed in a time period less than 10 days in July and
August of 1988.These
killings were done by shooting, hanging or even by grenade and TNT
explosives.The executions
were done in the hills around Evin.

It is interesting
to know that those who are running the government today are the same
people responsible for that massacre.This is because they all cooperated with each other in executing
that horrible crime.

Khatami, Rafsanjani
and Khamenei were among the masterminds of the massacre and should be
brought to Justice, as Iranian people are eventually going to do that.

In addition to my
personal experiences, I have been a witness to the Mental and physically
tortures of other political prisoners by this Regime.

I have witnessed
Kids who watched their parents getting tortured. I have also witnessed
kids who watched their parents’ bodies hanging on the cranes.This sad story continues even now almost every day in streets of
the Tehran and other cities.

There were many
occasions where children lived for years with their mothers in prison
cells.These children were
denied the very basic needs for survival.I knew of mothers in prison making a substitute for milk by
dissolving cheese and sugar in hot water, as their stressed and tortured
bodies could not produce milk.Nobody knows what happened to so many of those kids after
massacres of the 1988?

The Islamic regime
was working on the massacre of all political prisoners for some years.
Khomeini had ordered to get rid of all those political prisoners, no
reasons were needed.It was
decided to kill them all.There
were situations when the guards would ask the so-called death committee
if they should bring the next wave of prisoners for interrogation.And the answer was “no need, just kill them”.

On January.11th
.1988, they put all prisoners in closed-door rooms and allowed no more
visits by their families.

In fact on the
first days of January the speakers in prison announced to all prisoners
“we are not going to give this opportunity to people to save you from
prison and treat you as their heroes”.

We all knew what is
coming up and everybody was ready to die, because there is no other ways
for those who disagree with the mullahs of Iran.

From January until
July 1988 no newspapers, no TV, no Radio, no shower, no visiting of the
families and many times, even no food.

In each room (about
24 square meter, equivalent to about 220 square feet), there were more
than 45 prisoners.Finally
on July 29 or 30th they started the massacre.Many of the victims had not eaten for days and were thirsty
before their execution.

The massacre
continued until October 1988, but they killed more than 90% of prisoners
during the first 10 days.So
many times we heard the heavy machine guns, which were shooting to the
victims in the “Shooting Execution hall” of the prison.These were in addition to hanging on cranes and other hanging
stands.

Hearing the sound
of explosion shocks from the hills around Evin, we knew that in addition
to shooting and hanging, they were killing prisoners by mass bombing
with grenades and the TNT explosives.

In August and
September 1988 they took me twice to the death committee.The first time the only question was,” What is your opinion
about your father’s execution”?

I answered:please put yourself in my place, and imagine it is you instead of
me whose father is executed. And let me ask you the same question.Whatever your answer is will be my answer to your question.

Before I finished
my sentence, Falahian the minister of information and the intelligence
agency, said, “Kill him”.

It was a miracle
that I survived that order.One
of my father’s friends who was a powerful man in the regime, had found
and used a release letter in my file, signed by Montazeri, the successor
of Komini at the time.

The second time in
September they took me again to the same place: section 209 of Evin.
That day I heard the voice of martyred Davood Zargar who was shouting
“guards what are you waiting for, I am ready to die are you scared”?

I also heard the
martyred Reza Bahman Abadi who was singing the hymn of freedom inside of
his death sells.

But the most
emotional scene that I witnessed was weeping of some children who were
crying for their mothers, the women who were going to give their lives
because of their political and ideological beliefs.

Even after I
was out of prison for a while, none of my friends had any knowledge
about what happened to most of those kids.

In 1990, the
representative of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights came to
Iran for the first time, to visit and examine prisons of Iran. The
Islamic regime hid all of us, the 900 survivors, and substituted the
guards and others as the real political prisoners.

Fortunately,
the United Nations’ delegation had some names and pictures of
prisoners, and especially there was one prisoner that the representative
of the Human Rights was looking for, and therefore, the regime was
unable to substitute him with someone else. Through this one prisoner,
the delegation of the human rights found all of us, prepared photo ID,
and made the necessary case for all 900 survivors to save their lives.

And this was
and still is the story of all other survivors.Even right now there are many of them inside prisons of the
Islamic regime.Some of
them are killed by the secret agents of the regime, making it look like
car or other types of accidents.

My crying
today is just a small reflection of those kids’ tears, and my shouts
are small echo of the roar of the oppressed Iranian people.

My only and
final appeal is to American people. Those who believe in kindness and
freedom, and those who value human life.I appeal to you that for the sake of all humanity, and for the
sake of millions of suffering human beings in Iran, ask your government
to stop supporting this terrorist, fascist, and anti-human regime. And
in doing so, support the struggle of Iranian people for democracy and
freedom.

Down with the
Iranian Islamic regime and all its supporters around the world.

Dear Ladies
and Gentlemen, once again thank you for all your attention and your
kindness.